Post Publish: 2021-07-20
Categories: Industry news
Updated: 2022-09-07

As a digital signage manufacturer, how do comment on Rockchip?

Most of the chips used in the digital signage industry are from Rockchip. Their RK3288 and RK3399 are widely used. As a digital signage industry, we should recognize this enterprise that specializing in intelligent application chips.

Rockchip Introduction:

1. Rockchip was founded 20 years, starting from electronic dictionary MP3 player chips (up to 90% of the share), from MP3/MP4 chips, to tablet pc chips, and then to the field of intelligent IoT and artificial intelligence chips that are being developed, constantly adjust the research and development direction, and still maintain strong vitality;

2. Rockchip has formed competitiveness in audio processing, video codec, image processing, power management, and other IP core technologies.

It has accumulated certain competitive advantages in independent research and development of algorithms such as SoC architecture optimization technology, image mosaic, and synthesis technology.

SoC SoC(System on Chip) is an entire information processing System integrated on a Chip, which is called an on-Chip System or System-level Chip. The components integrated into different SoC applications are also different. Generally, SoC is a complete whole with the complete functions of the whole digital and analog circuit system, including a complete control system and embedded software.

3. There are four high risks in the chip industry: highly intensive technology, highly intensive talents, highly intensive capital, and a highly competitive market.

This means that the tycoons have more advantages, and small companies can only avoid their advantages, and deeply explore the subdivision fields, praying for smaller competition and greater profit margins.

With the rise of 5G and the Internet of Things, intelligent application chips will be used in more subdivided fields, which is the space of Rockchip;

Position in the chip industry:

In April 2018, Compass Intelligence, LLC released the global Artificial intelligence In the enterprise ranking list, Rockchip ranks 20th in the world, ranking second only to Hisilicon in Chinese mainland enterprises.

In the field of consumer electronics applications, SoC chip products are gradually entering the international high-end consumer electronics market, and the company has become one of the few domestic enterprises that have deep cooperation with international IT industry giants such as Intel, Google, and Samsung;

In the application field of intelligent IoT, SoC chip products are widely used in intelligent commercial display, intelligent retail, automotive electronics, intelligent security, and other fields.

In the application field of power management, Rockchip has customized and developed the low voltage, high current, high integration, and fast charging management chip, performance, and reliability indicators are at the market-leading level.

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Core technologies:

Rockchip has mastered a series of core technologies, especially accumulated profound technical advantages in audio and video coding and decoding, image visual processing, software and hardware collaborative development, multi-application platform development, etc, those core technologies have become an important part of core competitiveness.

As an integrated circuit design enterprise, in order to improve the research and development efficiency and give full play to its technical characteristics and competitive advantages, Rockchip adopts a research and development method combining independent research and development of IP cores and procurement of IP cores.

Rockchip independently developed IP cores mainly include video codec (VPU), image processor, display controller, memory interface and processing unit, power management unit (PMU), etc. The company purchases more general module IP cores based on ARM architecture, such as CPU and GPU.

CPU and GPU CPU and GPU IP cores are the necessary modules of application processor chips, which are led by a few giant enterprises such as ARM, Intel, and Imagination. Different CPU and GPU IP cores suppliers provide IP cores with different architectures, currently, the mainstream CPU architectures include the X86 architecture launched by Intel, the ARM architecture launched by ARM, and the MIPS architecture launched by MIPS.

Rockchip smart application processor chip belongs to SoC chip, including complete hardware circuit and embedded software carried by it. It needs to develop a corresponding application scheme while designing a chip, the huge hardware circuit and complex software system are effectively combined to realize the functions of chip products.

Rockchip SoC chip products are widely used and have broad market prospects, which are in line with the future development direction of the semiconductor industry and chip industry.

Competitive Environment:

According to the statistics of the integrated circuit design branch of the China Semiconductor Industry Association, there were 1698 IC design enterprises in China in 2018, among which 208 enterprises had sales of more than 0.1 billion yuan, accounting for 12.25%.

1. Tablet pc application fields:

For tablet pc, factors such as product positioning, chip performance, whole tablet pc cost, product research and development cycle will directly affect the competitiveness and market situation of the final product, therefore, tablet pc manufacturers are crucial to the selection of application processor chips.

In the past two years, the growth of tablet pc in education, advertising, catering, medical, and other application fields has offset the decline of the personal consumption market to a certain extent, keeping the overall market demand of tablet pc stable.

After the fierce market competition, the current market supply of tablet PC chips tends to be centralized. Apple, Intel, and Qualcomm occupy the top three in the global tablet application processor market in 2017.

Other tablet PC application processor chip suppliers include Hisilicon, MediaTek, Samsung, Spreadtrum, Allwinner, and Rockchip.

2. Application fields of intelligent set-top boxes:

The Internet set-top box gradually replaces the traditional digital TV set-top box and becomes one of the important entrances of a smart home by virtue of its rich content and flexible playing methods.

Hisilicon, Amlogic, Allwinner, and Mstar under MediaTek are the main competitors of the smart set-top box application processor chip.

Intelligent set-top boxes in mainland China are mainly divided into three categories, namely digital TV set-top boxes led by broadcasting and television operators, IPTV set-top boxes led by network operators, and OTT set-top boxes led by content providers and integrated business license providers.

Rockchip mainly participates in the market competition of OTT set-top box application processor chips, while a small part participates in IPTV set-top box market.

Since the era of MP3 and MP4, Rockchip has entered the field of audio and video. After years of technical development and accumulation, Rockchip has mastered the core technologies such as ultra-high-definition video codec technology and high-quality audio signal processing technology, which have laid a solid foundation for the company to rapidly expand the OTT set-top box field.

In recent years, the market share of Rockchip‘s chip products in the OTT set-top box retail market chip field is relatively stable, keeping between 10% and 15%.

3. In the application field of intelligent IoT:

Rockchip is one of the few design enterprises with international competitiveness in China. The SoC chip products of Rockchip are widely used in industrial control, automotive electronics, intelligent commercial display, intelligent retail, intelligent security, and other fields, it has effectively promoted the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, served, supported, and promoted the development of the new economy.

(1) in the field of industrial control.

The performance requirements for chip products are relatively high. Other domestic chip design manufacturers are mainly in the layout stage, and the main competitors of the company are Intel and MediaTek.

Rockchip has established cooperative relations with famous industrial control manufacturers such as Advantech. Chip products have been supplied to them, which has taken an important step in the localization of industrial control chips.

(2) in the field of automotive electronics.

In recent years, with the development of the automotive electronics afterloading market, domestic chip manufacturers are also actively expanding to this field. Both Rockchip and Allwinner are involved in this field, Rockchip‘s chip products are mainly used in the field of automotive electronics such as vehicle-mounted intelligent central control and intelligent rearview mirror.

(3) in the field of intelligent commercial display.

It mainly focuses on domestic manufacturers such as Allwinner and Rockchip, Rockchip SoC chip are mainly positioned as middle and high-end products, which can be widely used in large-scale industrial interactive display such as large vending machines and express cabinets, as well as digital signage, conference all in one tablet, advertising display, and other commercial display.

Pros and Cons:

Rockchip is a domestic manufacturer of media playback chips second only to Hisilicon, with a rich product line, ranging from MP3, MP4 to MID, voice, VR, and box chips.

Advantages:

Rockchip is willing to try the latest technology, there are certain advances in technology;

On the multimedia playback chip, many high-end cores at that time were first adopted, such as A8, A9, A17, A72, etc. They were the first to taste new products and were able to be mass-produced, as well as GPU, unexpectedly, there is MALI-T764 monster-level GPU used on RK3288.

RK3288 is a chip that has been on the market for more than 3 years. It can even be sold out of stock in 2018. it means that the product definition is quite successful. The key is that the price has not decreased, which is very stable and brings rich profits for a long life cycle.

Technical support is not bad, many agents have certain support to manage, the SDK is relatively reliable.

Disadvantages:

High requirement for PCB layout, at least 4 layers, it is high cost.
Software bug management defects, SDK fragmentation is serious.
Medium software openness.

Summary:

On the whole, the impression on Rockchip is good, which gives the feeling that it has been developing high-end chips, from ARM’s cortex-A9/cortex-A12/cortex-A17 to 64-bit A53, a72 is followed up earlier. GPU is also useful from Mali T600 Series, Mali T700 series to T800 series.

Secondly, customers are also relatively high-end, and they have direct cooperation with giants such as Microsoft, Google, and Intel, which are the demonstration of strength and quality.

In terms of R & D strength, Rockchip is one of the few domestic companies with the ability of SoC IC design. Especially in video and audio. In the long run, the commercial display industry will adopt Rockchip more often.

In the field of intelligent IOT application, what industry is Rockchip RK3288 mainly applied to?

In the application field of intelligent IoT, SoC chip products are widely used in intelligent commercial display, intelligent retail, automotive electronics, intelligent security, and other fields.

When was Rockchip RK3288 introduced to the market?

Rockchip RK3288 was introduced to the market in 2014.

As a digital signage manufacturer, how do comment on Rockchip?